“No improvement happens without change…
For every change, there is a price…
The value is in the commitment!”
-Vicki Ash
In working with shooters worldwide, we see a definite connection between shooters’ performance and how often and what they do when they practice. But they do not change what or how they practice and keep expecting to get better.
One of the biggest reasons shooters get stuck in a plateau is they try to do what someone else does because that person can hit more targets than they can. We hear the comments:
“I really need to focus
harder on the target.”
“I hit the first two pairs and then can’t buy a pair.”
“I
keep seeing the gun, so I need to focus just on the target and nothing else.”
…and there are others, all of which we have heard more than we care to a.
What we see that holds the majority of shooters back is they do not design practice sessions that exploit a weakness so they can practice their way into a stronger more consistent game. The good shooters work relentlessly to continue to refine their game to higher and higher levels. They never tell themselves they “got it!”
The other part of this anomaly is that the majority of shooters are looking for the quick fix, trying to “see” what someone else sees. And when they don’t get better, they all of a sudden have a mental problem. What we have found is that most shooters who think they have a mental problem don’t really have a mental problem at all. For your problem to be mental, your mechanical fundamentals must be 92 to 95 percent perfect 100 percent of the time. That means that you never have to think about what you are about to do with the gun, which includes hold point, and the lead!
Invariably you hear the word focus used by many shooters, especially when trying to fix a problem. While each person has a perception of what they are trying to do when they are focusing on a target, they really don’t understand the evolution of their focus or that they really can’t focus like a top shooting professional.
“One can only give as much focus to the target as they have to give!”
Gil said this on a Coaching Hour podcast two years ago and then went on to explain what he meant. What we see is that shooters never do any of their fundamentals enough times the same way so they happen without thought. That means when shooting, they must put a varying percentage of their focus or attention on the mechanics of the shot, therefore, taking focus off the target!
This varying amount of focus on the target shot to shot and station to station keeps them from ever being able to have enough focus on the target to improve and does nothing for their consistency. When you are thinking, you are accessing your short-term memory. That part of the brain is great for writing a phone number down, but when it comes to complex dynamic situations it fails miserably because it just can’t handle the large circuitry in the brain.
When practicing, it is really important that you practice the sequence of events that create the shot, not just the shot itself. When the brain recognizes the sequence as it begins, then the long-term memory takes over and you don’t have to think while performing.
Everything you do with the gun must become a habit that is stored in your long-term memory. In fact, you can’t work on your mental game until your mechanical game happens without you having to think about it. The simple concept of trying to see what another shooter sees is futile, especially if the shooter has a lot more experience than you. While mimicking what someone does when they shoot can give you a baseline to begin your sequencing, you cannot use what someone else does; you have to build it on your own through repetition in practice.
Joan Vickers’ study of “quiet eye” talks about how important it is for your eyes to be still the seconds before you do something. But the second part of her study is often forgotten or overlooked. She also proved that the better you become at anything, the fewer visual cues you need to reproduce skills at higher and higher levels!
It occurs to us that this could just be why there are so many different interpretations of what shooters see when they shoot a moving target. Different shooters, based on their experience levels, need to see more or fewer visual cues to hit the target!
We had a commercial pilot in a three-day class not long ago. In the discussion before we went out to shoot, we talked about this variable; what different shooters see and how we have seen shooters’ perceptions change and improve. When asked about what he was aware of when he began to learn to fly, his answer came quickly and was one word: “Everything!”
When the follow-up question came about what he was aware of in the cockpit, now a smile came across his face. “Much less,” he said. “But while what I am aware of is less, it gives me so much more information in less time.”
In another class, we had an ophthalmologist who did cataract surgery. As we discussed what different shooters in the group see when they shoot a moving target, we turned to him for validation of this theory. When we asked what he was aware of when he did his first surgery on his own he smiled and said “Everything.” And when asked what he was aware of on his most recent surgery, without hesitation he said, “Almost nothing. In fact, I was talking to the patient and the surgery just happened!”
Anders Ericsson, in his most recent book “Peak”, talks about how the brain develops skill and how it sees it as a pattern of sequential firings of certain neurons that create movements based on how often they are fired.
It is the pattern that is most important. To illustrate this we will show you two sentences and we think the pattern will be obvious:
“The lead if brain the you fix will just will it let!”
Do you see how difficult the words are to read? It’s because this pattern of words does not begin to draw a picture in the brain that allows for the brain to anticipate what the next words will be. Remember, it is the pattern or sequence of words or actions that allow the brain to say “Ah, yes. I know where this is going” and then it can anticipate what is going to happen, switch to long-term memory, and take over, allowing you to shoot without thinking.
When the exact same words are put in a different sequence, not only do they develop a picture, they are easy to read:
“The brain will fix the lead if you will just let it!”
Now go back and read these same words as we first presented them. See how awkward they are to read? And none of these words have more than two syllables! Now go back and read them in the correct order and notice how they flow.
Ericsson refers to this chunking phenomenon as a “mental representation” (MR) and explains how, in the beginning, you are supposed to be confused when trying something new. And failure while learning is not bad. In fact, it is essential for learning.
The conundrum to us is that most shooters are trying to get better without missing the targets. When a miss occurs, they get mad at the miss, which masks the cause. So they never get good at correcting a miss and they stagnate and plateau. Why they do this is not a mystery to us. We have been studying this for 26 years as professional coaches and while the science has evolved due to the MRI coming out in 2006, most shooters never practice the correct way.
For the majority of shooters, practice is about hitting the target. They are calling “pull” and chasing the target and trying to fix the shot at the end. When doing this, shooters are using their short term memory. This is great for remembering a phone number long enough to write it down, but falls way short when having to process large amounts of visual data into a MR that makes sense. Especially when the target is in the air!
Your long-term memory is so much more efficient at processing large amounts of input and turning that input into precise skillful output because that is how it was designed. In fact, all your skill resides in your long-term memory, and the better skills are the MRs Ericsson refers to in his book.
So how do we develop these MRs? Well, through repetition. But not by just going through the motions.
Shooters must begin to develop the ability to visualize in greater and greater detail what the shot will look like as it comes together and the target breaks. The more you visualize what the shot will look like and how the shot will come together like a movie as you take it, the easier it becomes for the brain to actually make it happen at higher and higher levels.
Like reading the same words in a different order was awkward, this, too will be awkward in the beginning. But with experience it will become easier and easier and the movies will come to you more quickly and in more detail.
The better the preload, the better the MR becomes, because it is the preload that allows for the brain to fire the circuit more precisely and your timing gets better and better and your visual process gets better and better. It becomes a “virtual circle.” The better the preload, the better the MR, and the better the MR the better the preload. After a while, you will realize that you are actually seeing fewer and fewer things but are aware of increasingly precise timing and consistency.
So performing at higher and higher levels requires more and more practice and repetition so you don’t have to see or think about as many things. And the better you get, the less you must focus on. We are learning that what you see becomes different. The better shooter you become, the more your ability to visualize in detail the movie of the shot coming together and the less you have to actually focus on the front of the target, and the easier it becomes to focus on the target.
We now understand that what you see when shooting moving targets is an evolution. People at different plateaus see different things. The better you get, the less you see, and the easier what you see becomes because of the brains ability to predict what you are about to do.
Through repetition, you think less and less while doing it at higher and higher levels. Because you are thinking less and less, you are actually freeing up more focus for the target because all your mechanical fundamentals have been trained through repetition and practice and passed off to your long-term memory. Then shooting at higher and higher levels then becomes a habit and happens with amazing consistency.
You guessed it, you can create that zone everyone talks about. But the one thing that stands in the way for most is not taking the time and putting forth the effort to really train and practice at a higher level to be able to build long term habits they can count on when performing.
Advertise a quick, easy way to stop flinching or missing that last target on every station, or a gimmick to use to allow you to look at the barrel and get the lead right on every shot and shooters will line up with credit cards in hand to buy their way to better and more consistent scores and performances.
There are three myths of skill-building:
1) Skill is genetic.
2) If I just do
it more I will get better.
3) If I practice harder, I will get better.
And they are myths. To have better scores and more consistent performances, you will have to put in the time and do the repetitions to develop the MRs in your long-term memory so you can shoot without thinking. Everyone wants to get better, but our experience shows that few are willing to put the time and effort in to get there.
It is as if “everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody is willing to die!”
